


Tom grows up without Dumbles

by AteanaLenn



Series: Notfics [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Have Fun!, M/M, Notfic, almost stream of consciousness, and grew and grew, this started as an outline, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 11:14:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13635159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AteanaLenn/pseuds/AteanaLenn
Summary: This is the story of an older Harry Potter discovering magic.However, it starts at the beginning: in a world where Dumbledore and Grindelwald killed each other a long time ago, Tom Riddle grew up in a Hogwarts without someone spying all his movements. He is, unsurprisingly, a lot more relaxed.





	Tom grows up without Dumbles

In a world where Dumbledore and Grindelwald killed each other a long time ago, Tom Riddle grew up in a Hogwarts without someone spying all his movements. He is, unsurprisingly, a lot more relaxed.

WWII still happens, but here there's no one to stop Tom from convincing Headmaster Dippet that sending the muggleborns back to bombed!London is a bad idea. It's bad enough for halfbloods with a wizarding parent, but at least they have options.

(also, wtf JKR, it _is_ totally a bad idea, who ever thought that sending kids in a bombed area was logical should be sent with them.)

Anyway.

There's no wizarding war because Tom's well liked and a lot more relaxed. He hasn't spent years mad paranoid about Dumbles, or trying to destroy Dumbles power base, or looking over his shoulder any time he did something not quite nice/explored new magics.

Tom, on the other hand, does have a very nice power base. Old families, powerful families, rich families. He doesn't feel the need to be Caliph instead of the Caliph, to get into an overly in-the-spotlight place of power. He has no real opponent nor anyone too suspicious about him, so he feels just fine doing his thing in the background, exploring and making up new spells, pushing the people with power at the Ministry to have them bring back the old magics, revive the rituals, bring back the trappings of wizarding "faith" (probably close to Wicca). Here, Dumbles isn't in power to force Halloween and Christmas down the children's throat. They add "wizarding rituals" and "wizarding customs" classes at Hogwarts.

The old families would like to do away with muggleborns entirely, but no one is stupid enough to believe that they can get rid of all the kids. Plus, if you have half a brain, it's common knowledge that muggleborns _probably_ come from squibs who have been sent to live in the muggle world. There's a reason why the really extremist families tended to kill squibs rather than let them go. Tom isn't stupid and knows that even though magic does protect them from a lot of things, he's aware that they need to keep new blood coming. Squibs and "muggleborns" see to that, so he lets them be. Well, as long as they're born. Afterward, programs are created and jobs are invented to start teaching the kids about their new world as soon as possible. It also keeps the number of magic related accident in the presence of muggles down. And if some parents aren't too hot about that, well, obviously they don't have their children's well-being in mind, so they're definitely not made to raise wizarding children.

This Tom Riddle mostly lives a quiet life. Which would also mostly be because he doesn't actually have adversaries. He's defiantly _not stupid_ and he's had the time to grow up and curb his worst habits/impatience. So when he's on his way to getting an enemy, he merely quietly make them disappear and that's it. Some might wonder, but eh, it's not like anyone has proof of anything. Also, everyone knows that Tom Riddle has some really fucking powerful friends, so even if they're not aware of how dangerous _he_ is, they still know better that to bother him.

Quiet doesn't mean boring. There's way too much to do in the wizarding world, to find the time to get bored. Make up rituals to bind his "friends" to himself so he's doubly sure of their trustworthiness, study old lost magics, use darker-than-gray rituals to ensure that his body stays strong, bind his soul to places so that he doesn't actually dies and has even more time to make sure that the wizarding world turns the way it should, ...

No, Tom Riddle does not grow bored.

#

Because I'm tired of writing with childish/children characters, in this one, our Harry Potter is a grown up.

Maybe the Slytherins aren’t hailed as evil and Severus doesn't turn into an asshole and Lily does not give up on him as the slightest provocation.

Maybe since Dumbles is out of the picture, the professors actually do something about all the bullying going around, especially the so called pranks before they can humiliate half the student body.

Maybe Lily still does get together with Potter, but there's no war so they're not on the run, so they take more care about contraceptives because Lily sure knows what the hell she wants to do when she grows up, and it doesn't involve having to spend years tethered at home by a newborn or at least with a big obligation that makes it impossible to drop a word to James "there's a nargle sighting in New Zealand! Back in a week!" via paper airplane and just leave through the nearest floo.

Who knows. There's enough possibilities.

However, there is a Harry Potter in this, absolutely. And as I said, he's even _grown up!_ gasp, what a weird thing. Not that there aren't grown up HP out there. Also, for a value of grown up. Though if I'm going to pair him up with Tom I'm-70+yo-and-still-looking-fresh Riddle, then he should probably be _at least_ over 30, to keep it somewhat equal experience wise. Sort of. I actually want 40+ HP, why the fuck not.

Anyway.

So, 40 yo HP turns up to this party.

I'm thinking either time travel or dimension hopping. Maybe both, why not ( _insert this “both, both is good” gif_ ).

In another world, in another dimension, maybe on a turtle, who knows, there's a good old Harry/Ginny pairing, with bashing because I like it when characters can hurl truths in the face of assholes, since I can't do it in real life because _that's not polite._

Also, let's add a zest of hounded-by-reporters-BoyWhoLived. Because that's always such a pleasure to be called the goddamn _BOY-who-lived_ at 40+ years old. Such fun. Not. I can only imagine how frustrating those hyphenated names must be.

The point of this idea, was that I wanted to get the space and time to have a grown up character to explore the wizarding world.

Therefore, the right idea would be: Harry eventually says fuck it. Maybe there's another wizarding war and they all turn toward their Savior-don't-forget-the-capital-letter. Maybe the muggles discover them and two wizarding wars took their toll and mister muggles-are-cute Dumbledore didn't help them stay on top when what always happens, happened, aka when they don't know something, muggles fear it and try to destroy it, preferably with fire or nuclear bombs. Maybe the Weasleys turned out to be asshole only looking for his money and stole his soulmate from him and hid his true heritage from him, who cares.

Because Harry Potter in this realm, totally has access to the Black fucking library. I want it, I am mightily jealous. There must be _so much stuff_ in that library. Old magics, forgotten magics, stuff that will make you hair rise just reading about it. They probably have a dungeon to go with it, eh. Point being: access to the knowledge, access to a fuck ton of money to get the necessities, and certainly enough quiet to do whatever he wants, because I expect that at that point, Harry has raised all the deadly wards lovingly maintained and reinforced by Walburga and her ancestors, at a kill-on-approach setting. Do not fuck with Harry Potter because he'll fuck you right back.

#

In a (somewhat) parallel dimension, not especially close from his original one, as Harry would rather there be some _significant_ changes to his current life, at least, a portal opens in the attic of the Black townhouse.

There's no one to see it, because Walburga, even if she doesn't die a bitter harpy from the death of one child and the "loss" of the other, still does die at some point. Tommy boy isn't exactly sharing his eternal-life-rituals. (though I'm starting to think that he might as well have made his very own philosopher stone, that's the kind of things that he would be very capable of.)

There's still a Potter family in this realm too. A much larger one, since there’s the maybe-James&Lily family, but also the grandparents, and certainly several cousins. Don't forget that there hasn't been two wizarding war to thin up their numbers, and even their participation during WWII was limited, as Dumbles and old Grindelwald off themselves years before (I'd say probably at the same time that they off poor Adriana, maybe, why not. Or maybe Aberforth offed them himself, that'd work too.)

Our Harry Potter could try to insert himself in this Potter family. On the other hand, explaining how a 40 years old came in existence? Awkward.

Because our Harry isn't stupid, he did stuff his pockets with his previous fortune. Not sure if the Goblins have a money-tracking system, but meh, let's say they don't and be happy with it. This is a plot hole that we don't need.

So, here he is, newborn (sort of) in this world, his pockets full of wordly goods, and no clear idea of what he's going to do, beyond not-get-manipulated-again (spoiler: I doubt that he'll escape being used again. That's a way too useful plot point.)

At least, there's one good thing: magic is weird and sentient sort of and claim is claim. Meaning that, the rest of this world might not acknowledge him, but this house will totally take this Harry Potter as new owner. After all, Sirius fucked off as fast as he could and hasn't looked back, Regulus might still be alive, I don't care to think it up, but I doubt that he'd be in any more of a hurry than Sirius to come and live in this mausoleum. With Walburga six feet under, well... That's not many people left to care for this building (read: one. Kreacher.)

So what happens is this: Harry lands in the attic with the great boom of compressed air, announcing his arrival with a nice sonic boom in the middle of London. I expect that the neighbors are probably mightily worried. I'm hoping that there isn't any old people living near, because this could give someone Blitz flashbacks.

Kreacher of course runs up and barges in just as Harry is dusting himself off and clapping himself on the back for a successful dimension hopping. Take that Hermione, he could tots do it, he's good like that. Unfortunately (of fortunately, depending on whose point of view we're using), the house "get there" before Kreacher. It metaphorically jumps as a new human suddenly sort-of-apparates between its walls and then notices that said human improbably has magical ties and a tenuous claim to Grimmauld Place's ward stone. Faster than you'd think, the house puts two and two together and comes up with: I don't have a owner anymore, I'm falling into ruins! Look, this one's magic is almost anchored to my ward stone! Slap, here, take it all, you'll do!

And that's how the full weight of the wards and enchantments holding Grimmauld Place together suddenly falls on Harry's shoulders. It's also why when Kreacher finds his way upstairs a few seconds later, Harry is laid out flat on his back, the room fairly vibrating with the swell of magic that filled it a few seconds earlier, and the house feels smug like it won the Best Show Garden Award.

I'd almost fast-forward and skip the uninteresting world-building/setting up shop in a new-world-that-isn't-quite-that-new-for-him, but there's also the fact that it's actually a great setting for "introducing" Tom.

Because Tom is everything but stupid and while he didn't have to be half as paranoid here, he's still intelligent enough to have his own version of CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!, so of course he's got all great feat of magic on his supernatural radar.

Also, because he's very polite, Tom knocks on the door.

Not that he exactly needs an invite, mind you. Obviously, he's no vampire, but also, Walburga gave him a standing invitation decades ago, because she's spent at least fifty years lusting after him and hoping that he'd take the hint and show up when her husband was away. (unfortunately for her, while Tom isn't exactly a monk, per se, the rare times he actually feels the need to indulge are always spent with men.)

So, Tom knocks. And Kreacher might be bound to Harry because of this goddamn building, but he's not going to take this shit lying down. And he's well aware that the one dude who might be able to boot that little upstart out, building's wishes notwithstanding, is one Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Tom is very politely and very insistently directed inside and up the stairs, instead of turning in the living room. Not that he minds, as he'd rather go straight to the source of that disturbance too, rather than fight for the right to _know_ . Yes, he totally is that kind of person who needs to know, everything, all the time. If there was a wizarding wikipedia, he'd spend his life browsing it and would probably be the one to coin the link hopping expression. He'd also probably be that asshole who very calmly and very nicely corrects those hooligans who are wrong wrong wrong, and when they insult him, gather their personal information and go _pay them a visit_ .

Because we are dramatic, Tom's first meeting with Harry involves Harry still sitting on the ground in the attic, half burned shirt off (does this needs an explanation? think Harlequin romance, the guy very sexily takes off his shirt and his chest is gleaming under the sun. what do you mean, it's the attic, there's no sun. oh, Harry is a typical pasty white Englishman? meh.) To top the picture, Harry's legs are spread wide and showing off a nice package (so what if Tom barely likes to have sex once every other month? he still likes to look) and his hair is disheveled (he's a Potter, his hair is _always_ disheveled. but for the good of the (plot)romance, we'll say that it's sexy and surprising).

On the ground, a huge magical circle is etched into the wood (and when I think about those, I always, always have Sakura's magical circles in mind. I'm predictable like that). Tom isn't quite sure which is the most interesting. The middle aged guy looking like a model or the circle or the obvious smugness permeating the house. He'd known that old wizarding buildings get... quirky, after absorbing that much magic over the centuries, but it's still creepy.

At some point, Harry gets up and they get around introducing themselves. Obviously, Harry has a minor heart attack while Tom-Marvolo-Riddle-call-me-Tom is bowing to him after his introduction. Because Harry is so surprised, he forgets to keep track of his tongue and ends up giving his full name too. Which, obviously too, Tom would notice, as he's the kind of person who probably know all the main genealogical trees by heart, and also knows which magical talent may pop up in which line. But whatever.

It might involve magic, it might involve some kind of potion in a polite cup of tea, it might involve a sneaky compulsion.

Bottom line is: Harry tells him everything. Because anyway, Tom is intelligent enough to put two and two together and get most of the picture right.

Fast forward some time, Harry has settled into the Black townhouse because where the hell would he go otherwise, and also it might have grown on him. The whole sentient house could be an exclusive feature of this dimension, like it could be a result of Sirius not having been here to dismantle it into oblivion. Who knows.

Tom also settles the hell here too, because this is the most interesting thing that happened _in the last three decades, you'll take away this mystery from his cold, lifeless body_ (and maybe not even because it's after all the dude who eventually, in another life, coined himself Voldemort and we all know what it means, by now.)

Insert snark and fanfic level of flirting, and then we finally get to where I meant to take this, two thousand words ago.

Aka an adult!Harry getting to learn about the wizarding world, and (real) magic, and magic spaces (Stonehenge!, ley lines!, there has to be a nemeton somewhere!), and learning about rituals, playing with snakes and Tom (I originally wrote Toms here, and boy, my mind went straight to the gutter), generally having fun with wild and beautiful magic, instead of war war war backstabbing bullying.

I want Harry freaking out the first time he's supposed to participate in a ritual _naked_ while Tom dies laughing in the sidelines, I want Harry looking bewitched while Tom makes magic dance and sing around them, I want animated toys and Harry having a bad day and cuddling a human sized plush dragon in a corner of the living room, while Tom reads a book on the sofa and runs a hand in his hair gently. I want Kreacher eventually shutting up about “mudbloods” because Tom gives him a red eyed glare and Kreacher might mostly be an asshole, but he also knows about self-preservation and wow, do not anger the potential-dark-lord, this is a thing.

I want magic linked to the elements, linked to the ground and the plants and freaking volcanoes, I want to learn about wizarding culture and why they're still stuck in the Victorian era, clothing wise (there's got to be a better explanation than a bit of air on their privates, seriously. I know that a fully robed wizard looks badass and sexy, but I'm sure that we could think up a full, worldbuilding level explanation.) I want Harry to ignore the ministry and the laws for once, because Tom has had those under control decades ago and while Harry might not exactly approve of taking children from their parents, he mostly does like that it's wizarding-world-oriented, and not pureblood-oriented this time that Tom hasn't been goaded into doing everything better and/or worse than Dumbles.

The thing is that Tom is a very bookish kind of person. So he's learned about the wizarding world the Ravenclaw way: through books and knowledge given by his network of "followers" he made back when he was still a Slytherin.

Harry, on the other hand, is full on hands-on. Which is a repetition in the text, but who cares, meh.

Speaking of, my take on the four Hogwarts Houses is this:

it's not so much about character traits, it's about goddamn learning traits. This is a school, seriously.

First, there are two groups: those who learn better by reading and those who learn better than doing. Aka Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs VS Ravenclaws and Slytherins.

The first separation is about how the teachers will teach them. Obviously, you don't teach Ravenclaws the same way than you teach Gryffindors. Give an essay to Gryffindors and watch them moan and let it wait until the last second. Give an essay to the Ravenclaws and they're going to hit the library first thing first, learning everything they can find about this subject, before (trying to) condense it into a few hundred words for their essay.

The second distinction is about the children themselves. Basically, some children likes their quiet time while others like to have fun loudly and with a lot of friends. Introverts vs extroverts!

So the first block of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, the hands-on group. Obviously: Hufflepuffs = introverts, Gryffindors = extroverts.

And for the second block, the ones who like to study by themselves/get a lot of info: Ravenclaws = introverts and Slytherins = extroverts.

If you build the world like this, in two groups of how-the-teachers-will-deal-with-the-children and how-the-children-will-live-with-each-other, then the Houses makes a looooot more sense than attributing _an eleven years old_ a lot of bravery or a lot of cunning. And also, that way the Hufflepuff House doesn't end up the everyone-else House.

It also makes sense that mixing the Gryffindors (hands-on) and the Slytherins (hands-off) in a single class is a pretty bad idea. In theory, it's good: it leaves more time to the teacher to deal with the Gryffins while the Slyths do their stuff. On the other hand, it also mean that instead of giving them the info and moving on, the teacher probably has to spend more time showing stuff to the Gryffins, while the Slyths who read ahead of class are bored out of their mind in their corners.

Aaaaanyway, this was not the point of this notfic (actually, this was originally an outline that I was writing down in my notebook and eventually copied on the computer as it was taking life and growing way longer than a three paragraphs outline).

Where was I?

Ah, right. Tom went to school in Slytherin House, aka then hands-off extroverts.

Makes sense: he did read a lot ahead/knew a lot of magic way above his year, and made up his network of future-sort-of-followers-if-I-were-a-dark-lord for later.

Comes in Harry, whose years at Hogwarts were... peculiar. We can't really say that Hogwarts, by the time that Harry turned up here, was a paragon of learning. I know that Binns is supposed to be a caricature of how most children find history lessons boring as fuck, and Snape is that one teacher-who-shouldn't-be-one and appears to despise all kids. The DADA teacher is probably that professor who's always away/on medical leave, and for whose class you got a string of more-or-less-invested replacement teachers.

How do you think that this Tom would react, when learning that Harry: A- was muggleraised, B- had a rather subpart education?

I'm sorta imagining him catching Harry by the sleeve and dragging him up to their rooms, ranting all the way, and then you've got Harry standing there, blinking blankly, while Tom stuffs their things in suitcases and then, weee! Off they're gone, because Tom isn't going to stand a wizard who knows nothing about their world. This is against _everything_ he has worked for all these decades.

This is the story of how Harry Potter ended up traveling the world with one Tom Marvolo Riddle, oohing and aahing over all sort of magical wonders. They go on a safari and Harry of course pets the lions and Tom stands to the side, vibrating with tension, his wand in hand, while Harry throws down with the big kitties and generally has the time of his life.

Then they go diving and visit the remains of Atlantis, where Tom plays tour guide and Harry learns that the merpeople are actually the people who previously lived in the now-sunken city.

Going to Japan and Sydney and Jakarta and Namibe and everywhere and visiting other magical districts, watching over magical ways, learning of other magical rituals and cultures.

Going to Romania where magical people are an open secret even if no one talks about it, except for the castle-for-tourists where tour guides talk about Dracula. Harry and Tom goes of course, because Harry loves stuff like that, and then they go have dinner with the actual Dracula because of course the vampire is one of Tom's "acquaintance".

Egypt and watching Gringotts' curse breakers fight off mummies and excavate centuries old enchanted objects. Harry wants to go find Hamunaptra. Tom spends half of their visit trying to keep him away from the desert.

South America, Canada, Antarctica, ... There are so many possibilities.

Integrating magic like the Spark thing from Teen Wolf, and while we're at it, how different werewolves "work" in America than in Britain, exploring pack mentality vs the curse that it is in the UK.

Why not inserting vampire history. I haven't seen/read the Vampire Diaries but I'm sure some of its lore could be integrated.

Supernatural? Of course!

Speaking of, it made me think of Crowley so obviously my mind went to Aziraphale, and now I'm imagining tea time with Az, Crowley, Tom, and Harry. Az and Harry would have a grand time. Crowley and Tom would probably be trying to one-up the other in the look-what-I-can-do department.

What else? Wendigos? Hannibal of course! With this time Tom and Hannibal having a grand time talking about stuff, while Will and Harry pet/play with the dogs. What's a little murder, Tom didn't go full on Dark Lord, but his hands certainly aren't clean. Also, flesh eating? lol, this is peanuts next to some of the rituals he had to do.

The point is, if I did this, there would be _so much_ material to make up a great wizarding world/culture. Also, lots of fun having mostly-sane-Tom and Harry in all kind of domestic situation. You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t find it funny, Tom and Harry having tea time with some other characters.

And obviously, at some point, Tom shares his immortality with Harry, and they go on, having a grand old time forever and ever.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this nonsense, I hope that you had a good time! 
> 
> Here's [a link if you want to **reblog** this fic link](http://oceanandspaceandfandom.tumblr.com/post/170733386657/tom-grows-up-without-dumbles-notfic) :D


End file.
